Thursday, June 1, 2017

How to Create Flavorful, Filling, User Friendly Vegan Salads

Updated 5/9/19

Leafy Green Salads are loaded
with vibrant plant energy, flavor, crunch, and plant-based protein. Greens,
when served raw, are alive with chlorophyll, the building block of cells. It's the substance that your body converts to energy for that great "get up and go feeling."

Most greens are
rich in calcium, iron, potassium, and B vitamins too. Prepare a chilled, refreshing tossed
green salad with all the trimmings. Elevate your health as well as savor a simple to prepare, delicious one dish meal.

The color greenhelps you focus on self-improvement, weed out old messages, and
sprout new growth. Visualize green to give you motivation to turn over a new
green leaf. Are there facets of your eating plan that require attention? If you
want to increase your health quotient, pay attention to what you eat. Notice
how quickly health improves, when you eat more fruits and veggies. Green energystimulates health, facilitates new
beginnings, and is the symbol of freedom and wealth. To feel better
emotionally, spiritually, physically, and intellectually put more green into
your life.

Did you know that lettuce has an average glycemic index
of 15? Because it has only one calorie per cup, its glycemic load is considered
zero. Foods with low glycemic indexes are great for anyone watching their blood
sugar. Eating salad with low fat or fat-free dressing is a great way to manage weight.

Romaine, guacamole, pinto beans, and colorful veggies

Leafy greens are often available in markets
or farm stands in an organic state (organic varieties are more nutritious and
don’t contain toxic pesticides like conventional ones). Look for the prewashed, packaged salad
blends for convenience. Buy individual heads of lettuce, that usually stay fresh longer and are less expensive than the prepackaged kind.

Salad add-ins like tomatoes, red cabbage, red
pepper, and spinach, are chock-full of antioxidants. Scoop on leftover beans, peas, or lentils, and make a simple meal that's hearty, as well as increase daily protein and fiber count.

Whole food plant-based entrée salads are an excellent way to satisfy hunger, fuel your body so it can work at peak efficiency, aid digestion and elimination, and eat a delicious meal that’s cholesterol free.

Brightly colored green veggies like celery, cucumbers, watercress, and zucchini squash are fun to use in salads. Add other colors too like carrots,
radishes, beets, red onion, and cauliflower. Fruit Salads that include strawberries, apples, blueberries, and melon are tasty additions to your weekly meal plan. Check out this Delicious Arugula Salad with Watermelon and Tofu Feta from Diane at Plant-based Cooking.

Mix or Match These Healthy Add-ins Instead of Using Junk Food Toppings

Cooked Whole Grain Pasta or Brown Rice

Canned Black Beans or Kidney Beans

Raw Brazil Nuts or Sesame Seeds

Fresh fennel, celery root, jicama, radicchio, endive,
escarole

Fresh papaya, mango, pineapple, Napa cabbage

Cooked artichokes, asparagus, Brussel sprouts

Olives, capers, onions, sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic

Note: It often follows that the
more vibrant the color of the plant-based food, the more eye appeal and
nutrients within.

Dr. Michael Greger, author of How
Not to Die and founder of NutritionFacts.org, advises people to eat cruciferous
vegetables every day. One simple way to include this type of food is to put broccoli, cabbage, collards, or kale into salads. He says, “I recommend at least one
serving a day (typically a half cup cooked cruciferous veggies) and at least two
additional servings of greens a day (one cup raw veggies equals a portion)." Dr. Greger’s
favorite greens are arugula, beet greens, collard greens, kale (black, green,
and red), mesclun mix (assorted young salad greens), mustard greens, sorrel, spinach, Swiss chard, and turnip greens. See 6 Foods I Recommend Eating Every Day for a Long Life: A Doctor Explains. Here's a wonderful recipe from Hadia at Hadia's Lebanese Cuisine.com. It's a mouth-watering recipe for Potato-Green-Bean-and-Avocado-Salad that's colorful and filling.

Discover how simple, satisfying, and nutritious it is to chop up and put together a main course salad.

Note: Be
Mindful of Your Salad Dressing Choices. All the good work you do eating
plant-based salads is for naught, if you smother your salads with fatty
dressings. Here’s a terrific low-fat Tahini Salad Dressing. Recipe is from Diane at
www.plantbasedcooking.com.

Have fun and take it easy this summer, especially when the weather gets hot.

HI Nancy, Wow these all look so tasty and healthy. I love salads all year long but the fresh vegetables in the summer are tastier. They are a great meal when it get hot outside. Sharing on Google, Twitter & Pinning. Have a healthy, happy & blessed day.